I have a vehicle that is not currently running from which I am pulling the engine. To do so, I need to remove the A/C compressor and condensor, but it is currently charged.
I have borrowed an A/C manifold gauge set and an A/C vacuum pump from AutoZone. I thought I could use this not just to put a vacuum on the system later when I swap to a different vehicle, but to evacuate the R134a refrigerant currently in the system. However, the instructions for the vacuum pump say not to run it on a pressurized system.
So what do I do? I can't take the car to a mechanic to have them properly pull out the refrigerant to a recovery system because the car is not mobile. I know you're not supposed to just dump R134a to atmosphere (though it's not as bad as R12).
Can I run the vacuum pump on the system anyway? Is that effectively the same as dumping it to atmosphere? Where do I go from here?
Thanks!